It is to be understood that the present invention pertains to removing skin from the backs of poultry and fowl including old and young chickens, at least small turkeys, ducks, and guineas, but for simplicity; the same are hereinafter defined by the generic term "poultry".
In the commercial processing of poultry for human consumption, after removal of the more choice members of the carcass, such as the breasts, thighs, and/or legs, wings, and necks, the one remaining carcass member is the back section. Since the back member contains a relatively scant amount of lean meat thereon, the meat recovered therefrom has traditionally been employed in combination with other foodstuff ingredients in the preparation of various types of chicken soups and similar products. However, with the advent of a recent government ruling, a certain amount of lean poultry meat may be incorporated into the compounding of frankfurters, as long as the percentage of lean meat so incorporated therein does not exceed an allowable predetermined percentage, whereby the label on such frankfurters which contain such poultry meat therein within the allowable percentage, may indicate that such frankfurters contain all meat. The aforementioned government ruling has thus created a new market and new demand for the relatively inexpensive back meat of poultry which heretofore was utilized in the preparation of other less expensive foodstuffs.
The subject of the instant invention comprises a machine which is designed to automatically remove the kidneys and fatty skin tissue from a series of poultry back carcass members introduced to the machine, so that the processed carcass members delivered from the machine may be employed in foodstuffs in regard to which the controlling regulations require that the poultry meat so utilized comprises only lean, fat-free flesh.
Although various mechanical devices have heretofore been disclosed in patents wherein pairs of rollers having intermeshing helical ribs have been used to remove skin from poultry gizzards, such devices have not included means to accommodate poultry back members or otherwise suggested the use of such machines to remove skin from poultry back members.
Further, while conveyance means similar to those employed in the instant invention and by which poultry back carcass members are transported from the infeed section, through various processing stations of the machine, to the delivery of said machine are shown in prior patents, they are for a different purpose and thus are patentably distinguishable from the present invention. For example, the conveyance mechanism shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,425 to Hill, dated Oct. 22, 1968, and comprising an endless chain impaling conveyor means engages and delivers poultry gizzard members to a set of inwardly and oppositely rotating course gear members in axial alignment with a second set of connected helical gear members, whereby said gizzards are subjected to a skinning operation which macerates the skins. Hence, while the instant invention incorporates a conveyance and skinning operation which has some similarity to that disclosed in the patent to Hill, the sequence of processing events and the processing results obtained by the instant invention are significantly different from those results obtained by the Hill disclosure.
Other patent disclosures also exist which show the employment of helical gear means to remove the skin from poultry gizzard members and macerate the skin. Among such disclosures are those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,099,038 to Platt, dated July 30, 1963, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,991 to Edwards, dated Dec. 2, 1969, and in another patent to Edwards, U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,714 dated May 25, 1971. Again, as heretofore pointed out, the disclosures in the three aforementioned patents specifically employ helical gear means to remove and macerate the protective skin covering from poultry gizzard members. Therefore, since the helical gear members employed in the instant invention are utilized for accomplishing the removal of different skin coverings from different poultry members and include different additional handling mechanism from that of said patents, the present invention is patentably distinguishable from the means disclosed in the aforementioned patents.
Mechanical means for removing the tail section of a poultry back member are revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,714,682 to Harben, dated Feb. 6, 1973, wherein poultry back carcass members are individually and manually positioned in the guide section of a set of roller means, one of the rollers of said set having cutting blades affixed thereto, whereby the rotatable engagement of said cutting roller with the tail section of said back carcass members result in the severing of said tail section from said carcass member. Although the end result is the same, i.e., removal of the tail section from the back carcass member by mechanical means, the mechanical means employed in the instant invention and the manner of positioning the tail section for removal, are readily and patentably distinguished over the disclosure shown in the Harben patent.
The vacuum removal of kidneys also has also long been known in the art as set forth in the disclosures in U.S. Pat. No. 3,451,097 to Knight, dated June 24, 1969, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,656 to Jahnke, dated Nov. 6, 1973. However, the disclosures set forth in the two aforementioned patents relate to manually operable vacuum devices for the removal of kidneys and other visceral members from the carcass of a chicken or similar type fowl. The absence of automatic viscera membrane retaining severing means, as well as automatic vacuum removal of exposed viscera, neither of which are shown in the patent disclosures of Knight or Jahnke likewise distinguishes the instant invention over these previous two disclosures.
As heretofore pointed out the instant invention is distinguishable from said earlier inventions in one or more ways in that the present invention has utility features and new and useful advantages, applications, and improvements in the art of processing mechanism to remove skin from poultry back members not hereintofore disclosed, as set forth hereinafter.